David Shearer appears to be weighing up his options for deputy prime minister between Green co-leader Russel Norman and NZ First leader Winston Peters as he looks for ways to reward support partners without letting go of the key finance portfolio.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, December 8th, 2012 at 9:00 am and is filed under NZ Politics.
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For better balance would Russel step back and allow Metiria to be a deputy or co-deputy? Would the Green party promote that, or have they morphed into a virtual top dog party as seems apparent?

Could be a useful strategy for the Greens if they somehow get into coalition govt. With Metiria as co-deputy, Winston would have to bite his tongue a lot more when asked by the media about the next Green’s “great-idea” or policy for the economy etc.

Meanwhile Russel could be patiently waiting in the wings for a few months when Winston or his party starts to fall apart under the pressure of Parliament and the now constant media glare, step in and assume the other co-deputy position! It would be win-win, both co-leaders the second most powerful people in the country!

Morris dancers will be breaking out on the streets alongside today’s dreadlocked hippy kids, good times!

Schools – especially secondry schools – only a few years ago had a single deputy principal. these days they have at least two and sometimes as many as four. (deputy principal curiculum, pastoral care, administration, teaching, etc)

So whats wrong with several deputy leaders. They could all be given an area of responsibility. Or even better – just duputy. Theyll all have different views on everything. The media will have field day….

The number of leaders and deputies should be assessed based on the workload, not on political favours. I’ve seen no economic rationale for a second deputy leader, and while the government is intent on reducing public services in all directions it would be hypocrisy to create expensive new roles in parliament just to satisfy the inflated egos of semi-competent politicians. Get real!

It could be useful to formalise an already apparent trend. Our cabinets have grown massively in number over the years and, surprise, surprise, most cabinet ministers outside the top 5 or 6 are inexperienced, incompetent or both. Every NZ government has has three or four people at its core, so it doesn’t really matter what their job titles are.

Before Shearer starts day dreaming, I would advise him to look at the results of the Fairfax poll out today. National despite all the inept handling of affairs by John Key and his useless bunch of ministers are still went up and NZ First is below 5%. People are slowly starting to realise the fact that a toxic combination of Labour-Green-NZ First-Mana will ruin this country for good. So Shearer just count your lucky stars that you didn’t get a knife in your backside and enjoy a quiet Christmas and stop talking about Deputy PMs.

Schools – especially secondry schools – only a few years ago had a single deputy principal. these days they have at least two and sometimes as many as four. (deputy principal curiculum, pastoral care, administration, teaching, etc)”

But that can’t be true, can it. Don’t the teachers unions all say that smaller teacher-student ratios are critical? If the schools are “wasting” teachers on DP admin work, maybe they think Hekia was right after all and bigger classes are better.

What it is not appreciated is that Greenpeace NZ branch is currently running the left wing brilliantly.
It has all the media totally onside. Norman is great – the others do not really matter.
It is made up of mainly white, very well educated, middle class, mostly New Zealanders, latte drinkers with no illeducated MPs, Unionists, recent Teachers, and Homosexuals.
As for policy it is irrelevant because from their position they can say whatever they like, as they will not be accountable, as Labour and the National will, until after the election. At that time, after coalition with Labour, they can bring in whatever they want – and will do.
They have waited patiently for over 20 years since they conned the country to vote for MMP to be in such a position of power. They can see their goal, and sod anybody else, as they are always right.
As a wavering National supporter I would love to see Labour take over the left wing again.
They are not my favourites but against Greenpeace NZ they are realistic.

Key-is-our-man 11.01am: agree with you. I think National need to be reminded constantly that they have the capability, if they play their cards right and don’t get into any more cup-of-tea or Dotcom situations, to govern alone. What is missing in NZ is a credible centre-right newspaper which does not offend the more conservative readers but counteracts the existing leftie publications. Why do I say this ? Because there are large numbers of voters out there who do not read blogs or websites but rely on the printed word and TV ( most of NZF voters would be in this category ). Winston has had the older, non-computerised , adoring and gullible section of NZ for too long. Time to get another 5% for National.